going with 3rd party Dell support vs Dell ProSupport?
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Small Dell shop here with 10 or so PowerEdge servers and some Dell switches and a Dell storage controller. I got a quote for ProSupport renewal on one of our units, specifically our Compellant storage controller and 3 years support is around $13k and 4 years is around $18k. I just got a call from 3rd party vendor called Park Place that specialized in Dell support and we used to have support on one of our systems with them but we've since switched back to getting only ProSupport through Dell themselves.
I remember a while back reading/hearing about how 3rd party support is usually the better alternative, kinda like buying Dell servers from xbyte.com instead of through a Dell VAR or something.
Any thoughts on that? Should a company be getting 3rd party support for a Dell server or storage controller that's nearing it's current 3-year support cycle?
I know my Dell VAR would try so hard to talk me out of going with Park Place support for obvious reasons lol
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Conceptually it could be good. Depends on the specific vendor, of course. What is Park Place's ability to get replacement parts for the Compellant? That's the biggest worry.
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@scottalanmiller said in going with 3rd party Dell support vs Dell ProSupport?:
Conceptually it could be good. Depends on the specific vendor, of course. What is Park Place's ability to get replacement parts for the Compellant? That's the biggest worry.
I'm fairly certain they will have no issue. They supported our previous Dell MD array for a while after Dell support expired and they provided us with drives and controllers. But that was a few years ago.
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We have used both Park Place and a company called Reliant for third party extended warranty for all our Dell PowerEdge servers. No issues with either of them. Prompt service and parts delivery from both and the techs they both sent were capable of the job.
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@dave247 said in going with 3rd party Dell support vs Dell ProSupport?:
@scottalanmiller said in going with 3rd party Dell support vs Dell ProSupport?:
Conceptually it could be good. Depends on the specific vendor, of course. What is Park Place's ability to get replacement parts for the Compellant? That's the biggest worry.
I'm fairly certain they will have no issue. They supported our previous Dell MD array for a while after Dell support expired and they provided us with drives and controllers. But that was a few years ago.
MD isn't the same. MD units are basically base servers with special software. Compellant have a bit more special sauce in them. More challenging for third party support. Not that they can't, just it's a bigger challenge to rise to.
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@scottalanmiller said in going with 3rd party Dell support vs Dell ProSupport?:
@dave247 said in going with 3rd party Dell support vs Dell ProSupport?:
@scottalanmiller said in going with 3rd party Dell support vs Dell ProSupport?:
Conceptually it could be good. Depends on the specific vendor, of course. What is Park Place's ability to get replacement parts for the Compellant? That's the biggest worry.
I'm fairly certain they will have no issue. They supported our previous Dell MD array for a while after Dell support expired and they provided us with drives and controllers. But that was a few years ago.
MD isn't the same. MD units are basically base servers with special software. Compellant have a bit more special sauce in them. More challenging for third party support. Not that they can't, just it's a bigger challenge to rise to.
hmm I didn't know that. I mean, I assumed they were different since they are different kinds of models rolled out at different times. Not sure how I can verify other than taking the words of the salesperson that they do in fact service Compellants.
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@dave247 said in going with 3rd party Dell support vs Dell ProSupport?:
@scottalanmiller said in going with 3rd party Dell support vs Dell ProSupport?:
@dave247 said in going with 3rd party Dell support vs Dell ProSupport?:
@scottalanmiller said in going with 3rd party Dell support vs Dell ProSupport?:
Conceptually it could be good. Depends on the specific vendor, of course. What is Park Place's ability to get replacement parts for the Compellant? That's the biggest worry.
I'm fairly certain they will have no issue. They supported our previous Dell MD array for a while after Dell support expired and they provided us with drives and controllers. But that was a few years ago.
MD isn't the same. MD units are basically base servers with special software. Compellant have a bit more special sauce in them. More challenging for third party support. Not that they can't, just it's a bigger challenge to rise to.
hmm I didn't know that. I mean, I assumed they were different since they are different kinds of models rolled out at different times. Not sure how I can verify other than taking the words of the salesperson that they do in fact service Compellants.
Not much. Mostly just ask them if they can service and get replacement parts for the Compellant.
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Park place was able to get parts (new flash board)for our long out of warranty NetApp appliance.
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Interesting I hadn't heard good things about park place before and they have reached out to me over the years I'll have to keep this in mind.
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@DarienA said in going with 3rd party Dell support vs Dell ProSupport?:
Interesting I hadn't heard good things about park place before and they have reached out to me over the years I'll have to keep this in mind.
So you had heard bad things or what?
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@dave247 said in going with 3rd party Dell support vs Dell ProSupport?:
@DarienA said in going with 3rd party Dell support vs Dell ProSupport?:
Interesting I hadn't heard good things about park place before and they have reached out to me over the years I'll have to keep this in mind.
So you had heard bad things or what?
I was wondering that myself.
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Sorry I didn't mean to leave the conversation hanging like that. Its definitely been a few years but I had heard less than positive things about the organization in terms of communication (how quickly support issues were addressed). Since its been a few years there is absolutely a high chance this was a personnel type situation that has long since been resolved.
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@DarienA said in going with 3rd party Dell support vs Dell ProSupport?:
Sorry I didn't mean to leave the conversation hanging like that. Its definitely been a few years but I had heard less than positive things about the organization in terms of communication (how quickly support issues were addressed). Since its been a few years there is absolutely a high chance this was a personnel type situation that has long since been resolved.
Thanks for the feedback.
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We used Park Place for years without issue and only switched because Reliant gave us better pricing that Park Place could not match. We were happy with Park Place and so far have been happy with Reliant. Our extended coverages come up again in March so we will do the head-to-head battle again and see who comes out better.
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@jt1001001 said in going with 3rd party Dell support vs Dell ProSupport?:
We used Park Place for years without issue and only switched because Reliant gave us better pricing that Park Place could not match. We were happy with Park Place and so far have been happy with Reliant. Our extended coverages come up again in March so we will do the head-to-head battle again and see who comes out better.
This is good to know as we'll have some back end equip that will go EOL so I'll at least feel more comfortable about reaching out to both orgs.
